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Beyond Basic Yoga for Dummies

Beyond Basic Yoga for Dummies

List Price: $14.98
Your Price: $13.48
Product Info Reviews

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Rating: 5 stars
Summary: A great next step for beginning yogis
Review: Big fan of Sara Ivanhoe here. Her instructional style is pleasant without being patronizing; she looks like she's really enjoying herself and manages to convey the feeling that she is in the room with you. Her instruction creates a very clear picture of what the body is supposed to be doing/feeling/aiming for at any time.

I found it to be not only a great sequel to Basic Yoga for Dummies, but an excellent companion to her two Crunch workouts--many of the poses introduced in the Crunch series are explored in more depth here, which made both the Fat-Burning and the Joy Of Yoga workouts become clearer.

Once I understood the poses I wished that there were an option to run through them with fewer preliminaries, but I like the DVD so much anyway that I had to give it five stars. I'll be working with this one for awhile--there's plenty of room to grow with this workout.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Good for beginners, but chatty
Review: For those new to yoga, this video provides non-threatening, carefully explained instruction. If you are beyond the beginner level, however, the pace soon becomes too slow. What's worse is that the video is, as another reviewer put it, overnarrated. There are four voice-overs during the relaxation pose alone! Since this is supposed to be the pose in which one pleasantly zones out, I found this to be very distracting.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: A little disappointed...
Review: I bought the First DVD, Yoga for Dummies. It was great because it had a section where she showed you each pose and then she actually gave you a full routine that you could practice to. This DVD only gives the instructional part but there is no routine to follow. And I agree with the other reviews...the pop-ups are beyond annoying. I do not think these existed on the first DVD and I am not quite sure why they were added. I like Candle Light Yoga and Crunch Fat Burning with Sara but I would not recommend this DVD due to the fact that it is basically instructional with no practice routine to go with the instructional.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Beyond Dummies
Review: I bought this video at a another store, because I have been doing yoga for almost a year now, and I didn't want to do the same boring stuff you see on the beginner videos. I thought this one was pretty good, it told you some key points about yoga while you are doing the streatches, and also if you can't do some of the poses they still give you a simple way of doing the practice. The next day my abs were a little sore, which means that this video does work (don't worry it wasn't a kind of pain that you have to stay in bed for, just a little bit of pain ^_^). I recomend this video to anyone who wants another stage up from a Beginners level.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Like this one a lot...
Review: I do this tape most mornings before getting ready for work. I really like it. The poses are challenging and Ivanhoe does a very good job cueing and explaining things. I do have to say that it is a tad over narrated and that can get old over time. Also, I find her voice to be a trifle too saccharine for my tastes. However, despite those two downsides I still find this tape very effective. I'm often sore after I do it. This is a good choice.

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: Disapointed :(
Review: I have been praciticing yoga for about a year now. I purchased this video after about 4 months of practice and was completely bored. I couldn't even get past the first couple of segments. I found the pace slow. The first video that I bought was Crunch: Fat Burning Yoga, I loved it! I found it easy to follow and just the right amount of challenge, so I looked for other videos by Sara Ivanhoe. I purchase this and was very disapointed. For anyone with any prior yoga experience I would not recomend this, however if you are unsure of the proper way to do poses, this could be very helpful.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: A few tips...
Review: I have found both Sara's DVDs useful and fun. I will not repeat information from other reviewers that I agree with, but I will offer a few tips to those who have a concern over the length of time and "patter" in this series (Beyond Basic and Basic). These tips will work for both DVDs.

If you have gone through the daily dozen with Sara several times and know everything she's going to say, do one of the following...

1. Mute Sara and just watch her do the poses with you while you put on a calming CD. You'll still feel like she's there with you and she'll keep you moving from one pose to another.

2. Don't use the DVD at all, but put the daily dozen list in front of you and just follow it at your own pace. (Also listening to some calming music.) You can increase or decrease the amount of breaths you take in each pose to modify your session. We do this a lot.

3. Do the intermediate session on the Basic DVD or the meditation on the Beyond Basics. Those 2 rotated make a great session on their own!

When you want a refresher course on how the poses should look and feel, just turn Sara back on and review with her.

Don't be scared off by other reviewers' comments! I've been using this series for a year now, and it's the one I'm happiest with! This new DVD is a great companion for the first.

Namaste.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: A few tips...
Review: I have found both Sara's DVDs useful and fun. I will not repeat information from other reviewers that I agree with, but I will offer a few tips to those who have a concern over the length of time and "patter" in this series (Beyond Basic and Basic). These tips will work for both DVDs.

If you have gone through the daily dozen with Sara several times and know everything she's going to say, do one of the following...

1. Mute Sara and just watch her do the poses with you while you put on a calming CD. You'll still feel like she's there with you and she'll keep you moving from one pose to another.

2. Don't use the DVD at all, but put the daily dozen list in front of you and just follow it at your own pace. (Also listening to some calming music.) You can increase or decrease the amount of breaths you take in each pose to modify your session. We do this a lot.

3. Do the intermediate session on the Basic DVD or the meditation on the Beyond Basics. Those 2 rotated make a great session on their own!

When you want a refresher course on how the poses should look and feel, just turn Sara back on and review with her.

Don't be scared off by other reviewers' comments! I've been using this series for a year now, and it's the one I'm happiest with! This new DVD is a great companion for the first.

Namaste.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: great for beginner
Review: I have started doing Bikram's yoga for a month and a half and was looking for a supplementary program which I can do at home when I am not going to class. After going through almost every yoga video available at Amazon[.com], I chose this one by Sara Ivanhoe.

I like her style. Her instructions are clear, and her tone is encouraging and soothing. However, perhaps Bikram's program is more fast-paced, I generally find her pace too slow. Her instructions become long-winded after you have done the program several times. I wonder if she can do a video for the more experienced.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Good if you're a Dummy! Otherwise, average.
Review: I received this as a gift from someone that chose it for the familiarity of the brand, against the myriad of other yoga videos available. Like many other Dummies publications, it delivers an adequate amount of information in an easy-to-understand and unsaturated fashion. While I would have preferred a better exposition of the principles involved, Beyond Basic Yoga for Dummies provided a fairly rigourous and rewaring yoga workout that left me with an extremely calm feeling of energy upon completion. My biggest complaint is the frequent interruptions of the trademark Dummies tips as they're very distracting, especially when you're supposed to be focusing on the movement; Ironically enough, one of the tips tells you to eliminate distractions! Sarah Ivanhoe is a great instructor, but I think that her Crunch Candlelight Yoga video far surpasses this one if you're interested in a better understanding and demonstration of Yoga.


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